This show is the first exhibition ever in China of the famous young Italian duo, the most innovative at this moment: STEN LEX. Pioneers in their use of stencil in Italy, STEN LEX invest the streets of Rome since 2001. They quickly obtained international fame thanks to their impressive portraits of anonymous people pasted in the cities across the world. Invited by Banksy to the Cans Festival in London in 2008, recently seen at the Open Walls Festival in Baltimore and in the exhibition Vues sur Vues in Belgium, STEN LEX’s work is internationally recognized and valued by museums. In 2012, they entered the MACRO (Museum of Contemporary Art of Roma) collection for which they made a monumental in situ work.

The exhibition offers a complete overview of STEN LEX’s work, from black & white as well as full color works from their latest researches. At the crossroads between Op Art (Optical art), photography and stencil, STEN LEX’s work is characterized by a highly developed technical finesse adapted to a monumental scale. This practice, called the hole school, consists in hand-cutting meticulously hundreds of lines. By an optical effect, these lines compose the final picture.

Portraits found in archives from the 60s and 70s or drawn by the artists themselves are their raw material. These faces of people from another era who seem emotionless evoke memory and time passing. Paper strips from the stencil intentionally remain, as unfinished. STEN LEX’s in situ action take a significant dimension in Shanghai, one of the biggest cities in China. Huge outside portraits will bring a new dialogue between art and the city.

Image: © Sten Lex, Gallery Magda Danysz